[Jazhara7]

Okay, I am planning on buying my first own Notebook. I have a pretty good idea of what it should be like, and also have found what I think looks like a pretty good deal. However, I want to get an extra opionion from someone with more experience first.

Here is the Notebook in question:

Schenker Notebook (Student Deal)

The page is in German, but it should be pretty straight forward even if you don't speak the language

Some notes about this:

- I want a notebook that is a good compromise between a general work notebook, and a gaming notebook, with a slightly higher tendency to gaming.

- The Price should not be too high. The base price of the one above is still alright, and still might have some room upwards for some variations (you can customise the notebook on the page).

- The notebook is a student deal, meaning it starts at 100 Euro cheaper than the Regular Version. There's some variations, namely an i3 Prozessor instead of the regular i5 ( Comparison at Intel. I might be willing to upgrade and pay 99 € extra, but I want to know if it would be worth it first.), as well as 320 GB instead of 500 GB (which shouldn't be a problem since I am well versed in the use of external harddrives. Also, 320 GB is nothing to complain about either.)

- I realise this deal comes without any kind of OS. That is no problem as my father has a multi-installation from Windows, with several registrations for the entire household. And if all else fails, I have the option to get a Student registration key through the University. So don't worry about that.


The games I like to play and would like to have the option to on this game include: Portal 1 & 2, Adventure Games in General, Magicka (from Steam), Baldur's Gate series. These are the ones of which I think it is quite realistic to assume there shouldn't be many problems running them on this PC. I have had troubles with Portal 2 and Magicka not working on a Notebook, due to that one not really being cut out for gaming. Some games that I think would be great if they worked on the Notebook, but which I can live without should that be unrealistic are: Mass Effect series, Fallout: New Vegas, The Witcher 2...and I don't even dare dream of Skyrim working on a Notebook, but hey, I don't have much experience as I mentioned before.


So yeah, that's about it. What do you think? Is this Notebook a good deal for what I would like to use it for? Should I upgrade some of the available options (most likely Processor or RAM), or is that not worth it?

Looking forward to advice.


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[tsa]

I think it's a good deal, especially as it comes without any software on it. Do you really want such a big screen though? It's not easy to lug that around everywhere.

[RLacey]

Personally, I'd upgrade to the i5 processor, though I haven't read a lot of benchmarks.

While the Geforce 555M is hardly an amazing card (and does seem to have a silly amount of VRAM given its power), it does beat the minimum specs for The Witcher 2, and I can't see it having any problems running Mass Effect or New Vegas. You won't get maximum graphics settings, but I surprised if you couldn't get them to run perfectly playably.

[RLacey]

Also, if the 500GB HDD upgrade is really only €7, that's probably worth it (though I agree that it isn't really necessary).

[rlpw]

The I5 is worth it. And bless your heart for hanging on to Baldurs Gate. Now I have to figure out where I stored mine at.

[tsa]

Did you buy a notebook already Jaz?

[Jazhara7]

No, I didn't buy it yet, but I am saving up to do so soon.

Thanks for the advice guys, it really helped.


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[tsa]

I have more advice: Buy a Mac!